I'm thinking things like Drow who can create areas of darkness which they themselves can't see through. It seems kind of pointless, to me (except in the specific case of being a warlock with the "super darkvision" option).
In the old Salvatore books the drow either used the globes to screen off areas or to hide inside the globes for ambush or respite. The impression is that they use other senses and knowledge of the area/natural balance to charge out.
Alternatively they drop them on an enemy to cause confusion and panic. Picking off enemy picemeal as they come into sight. I can't remember cases of them fighting inside the darkness - except the warrior Ryld Argith in one of the spider queen books has blind fighting to give himself the advantage.
If I remember correctly there was also a duel described in the Menzoberranzan source box that had a duel that took place above the clawrift involving drow nobles fighting inside a globe of darkness for as long as they could until their levitate ended.
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I'm not sure if it works this way in 5th Edition, but in 3.X/PF, I saw drow PCs use faerie fire AND darkness together. You would put faerie fire on your enemies and darkness on the terrain, and then you could see your enemies, but your enemies couldn't see you.
It's kind of a mindbending situation, and I'm not sure how legal/official/RAW/RAI it was, but it's one way I saw drow benefit from their special racial spells.
I think that was when darkness only reduced light level rather than extinguishing all light.
I'm not sure how I feel about the faerie fire spell. Does anyone else think giving advantage against up to 16 creatures to everyone in the party is a bit good?
It seems kind of pointless, to me (except in the specific case of being a warlock with the "super darkvision" option).
Darkness and Devil Sight is a *really* good combo for a tiefling warlock. They get darkness as a racial spell, and (if I recall the name correctly) Hunger of Hadar creates both darkness and deals damage. My first 5E character got very good at picking a choke point, dropping one of those spells on it, and sniping blinded enemies with cantrips.
Faerie fire gets a save, so it requires a lot of good luck, and the creature knows they are now glowing blue so they realistically wouldn't just eat attacks. And the faerie fire combination works really well if it's cast above 2nd level. That is a good use of the rules.
It can effect a 20ft cube so odds are multiple creatures will fail, assuming either positioning is ok or saves D.C. is reasonable.
Also what difference does casting it at level 2 and higher make?
The only limiting factor is concentration, which is a reasonable limiting factor I guess.
Drow us it to snuff out torchbearing intruders and to confound other underworld races. While they can't see, they prepare ambushes that take this into account. Drow crossbowman could use darkness for cover, standing on the edge of the darkness and firing out.
Ahh that makes sense about the darkness and a higher level spell.
In terms of burning a slot, I can't see that is particularly relevant. It may be on two creatures it maybe on 12 but granting all the party advantage on all attack rolls is very good - particularly for rogues. Lasting up to a minute as well. Seems very cheap for a 1st level spell and worth using on much more than just mooks.
Darkness is used often defensively, to snuff a party's light spells. I also tend to give drow blind-fight and good perception rolls. They are still at a disadvantage, but less so than other people.
There's also grimlock slaves to worry about.
Many drow wizards use bat familiars and area effect spells.